I think ferrari don't expect Mercedes to go that fast and probably didn't use their full power to save engine. Vettel also said gps shown Lewis is fastest at corners. Because of the engine limit per season, team will try to do 'just enough' rather than all out at every race. So they need to anticipate what/how much others have... Just like poker.

I'd loved to see alonso reaction. Seems like Honda engine is quite powerful. Might be the 3rd most powerful.

Its quite interesting that Ferrari can nurse its tyres to that extent in a hot condition. Other teams might need to think twice when playing strategies with tyres

I like how ferrari taking risk unlike last year.

Mercedes in the other hand seems to rely too much on data/statistics... Not guts. They could easily won if bottas just gone quicker earlier but they choose not to as they confident vettel would pit again.

I beg to differ... If bottas attacking earlier, vettel tyres will be gone earlier because he need to defend. Vettel himself said there's nothing left in the tyres on the last lap. However bottas only start closing down on vettel after its clear that vettel not pitting again.

Btw, Mercedes might be fooled by vettel radio message saying 'he got everything under control'... Haha

Agreed. Racing nowadays is doing just enough instead of go all out. All because of stupid rules/penalties.

I noticed that Mercedes is highly reliant on pit wall for every call. That's why LH seems lost when no radio contact. Even in Australia, he kept asking whether to attack Vettel or not and didn't get an answer... Seems like the pit wall cannot make decisions..

I think the problem with mclaren honda last few years is that mclaren didn't want to compromise on their 'best chassis' to accommodate honda design... Unlike TR

Kimi are more likely testing setting that sure works... While vettel are on settings that 'might' work.

Vettel n ferrari looks strong. Kimi also fast this year. Hopefully his ice hearts didn't breaks.. Haha

Nowadays... With limit in engine components, it hard to predict.

Also, Ferrari in season development not so good last few years and even RB can challenge them by end of the season.

Imo, Lewis biggest concern today is not vettel, but max. Haha

Although I'm vettel fan, i think he overdid the squeeze on kimi

Seems like Mercedes went for setup for Med and throw the soft for qualifying.

RB just throw the dice and bet on it

The problem with max is that he never admitted his faults... Maybe after a while RB will get fed up with him.

Yeah. Alonso must have. Haha

I think vettel kinda just nursing the car because hd didn't know the extent of the damage... And also his tyres are pretty much gone.

If this continue, Mercedes might quit F1.

Btw, vettel seems struggling a lot. Trying out new setup perhaps

RB got big sponsor and not winning will damaged Renault brand more than them imo.

Ferrari kept continuing F1 even when not winning unlike other manufacturers...

As expected... Vettel was playing with different setup for fp and fp2

This post has been edited by sphiroth: Apr 28 2018, 07:08 PM

Actually, ferrari just need to cover Hamilton

Bad luck kimi